Texas Family Reunited With Dog After Four Years

Oct. 1, 2012— -- For four years, Twlya Long and her family wondered what happened to their Siberian huskies, China and Asia. Had they been hit by a car? Were they living with another family? And most importantly, were they safe?

China was returned in 2010 and on Sunday evening, the Longs, of Grand Prairie, Texas, finally got confirmation that Asia was also safe and on her way home.

In September 2008, the Longs' puppies were stolen out of their backyard. Using the microchips that were implanted in them, the Longs reported them missing so that anyone who found them would get their contact information when the puppies were scanned.

Two years later, China was found in Saginaw, Texas, an hour and 45 minutes away from their home. Sunday night, Asia was returned to them from outside Chicago, 825 miles away, and all thanks to a microchip.

On Sept. 21, the Pulaski Animal Hospital in Chicago contacted the Longs that they had scanned Asia's microchip after she was found on a highway near the airport.

"It was a huge sense of relief," Twyla Long told ABC News. "We wish we could be a little speck on her brain so we could know what she has seen in the last four years and what she has been through."

The Longs contacted Dog Runner Transport, who drove from West Virginia to Chicago to pick up Asia and bring her home to the Longs in Texas. Asia, now almost 5 years old, was incredibly excited when she was reunited with her family, Long said.

"She came in our house last night and she went right to the back door like she knew the back door was there," Long told ABC News Monday. "She's not so friendly with her sister right now. They're irritated with each other but we're working them slowly back together."

In January 2010, the Longs got a call that China had been scanned and was found in Saginaw. Her teeth and fur were clean and she was at a healthy weight, so the Longs believe she was living with another family.

"She remembered exactly who we were," Long said. "She picked up on life as if she never even left."

Long, 33, said it was a tough battle to convince her husband to let her adopt China and Asia from a Fort Worth animal shelter. They already had one Siberian husky and her husband insisted that they didn't need any more. Long desperately tried to find the puppies a home but was unsuccessful.

"The day they were scheduled to be euthanized I begged my husband and he said OK," Long said. "I said, 'Great, I'm sitting in their lobby now.'"

Putting microchips into the puppies was part of the adoption fee from the shelter and Long said she is thankful they have them.

The entire time their dogs were gone, the Longs and their four children never gave up hope about finding them.

"Every time they [her children] would see a Siberian husky they wanted to scan it for a microchip," Long said. "They wanted to make sure it wasn't China or Asia."

Long's 15-year-old son also volunteered at the animal shelter in Grand Prairie so that he could check any Siberian huskies that came through to see if they were China or Asia.

"We knew that one day we would find them and they would come back home," Long said.